FCOP children preform a traditional themed dance depicting the battle between good and evil.
Last Sunday the featured Cambodian ballet, at the Central Church, was depicting the war between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of Light. It turned out to be very appropriate. This may shock some of you, but not everything that happens on this planet is God’s will. Satan does bad stuff all the time. Our assignment is to take back occupied territory. We are in a war! From the time God told us to “fill the earth and subdue it…” (Genesis 1:28), there must have been a problem, because why do you have to “subdue” something that is created “…very good…?” (We don’t know the exact timing of the casting of Satan and his minions to earth, but, of course, the problem emerged in the deception and fall of mankind in Genesis 3. There has been a cosmic struggle between good and evil ever since. We won our victory at the cross of Christ, and had it confirmed by the resurrection, but we still face the “already, not yet” struggle. Why? Because it’s our assignment! Why did Jesus teach us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” if there are not some problems on earth? Bringing God’s kingdom to this earth is FCOP’s primary assignment.
In addition to starting more than 6000 churches and home groups, leading in excess of 1,000,000 people to Christ, for 17 years FCOP has been building His kingdom through raising more than 18,000 orphaned and separated children in Cambodia, without a serious incident of abuse. We took a big hit this month! Not that God is surprised by it, but He does expect us (the Church) to war against it with the blood of the cross and the power of His Spirit. When these hits come, they hurt!
The director of one of our provincial church homes, came to Phnom Penh for training. Her husband, though not on staff, operated a “tuk-tuk” (passenger cart, pulled by a motor bike) and often took the kids to school. So, when he showed up to check on the home during his wife’s absence, it was not considered unusual. He sexually abused three girls between 10 and 12 years old, one of them a niece. It was a quiet crime, done with deception, payments and gifts. The staff didn’t know about it until more than two weeks later when they overheard the girls talking. The director called our staff administrator, Naret, who instructed her to report it to the police immediately. Together with Naret, our FCOP doctor and general supervisor left for the home within the hour. The man had fled, his picture has been circulated to all police border crossings, but it is feared he has traveled to Thailand where he had worked previously. The three girls are still under the care of FCOP, at a different location, and the church home is still operating, under a new focus on security.
